Whangārei’s hugely popular Zonta Book Fair needs new venue

The Zonta Book Fair in Whangārei sells thousands of books in the group’s major fundraiser. But the fair needs a new venue this year and wants help to find a suitable space.

“There is no friend as loyal as a book” American novelist and short story writer Ernest Hemingway once said, and books have been a loyal friend to Whangārei’s Zonta clubs, with their annual book fair raising more than $700,000 for charity.

But after more than 30 years, and numerous homes, Whangārei’s hugely popular Zonta Book Fair needs to find another new venue for receiving and sorting donated books to go ahead this year.

The Book Fair, organised by Whangārei’s Zonta Whangārei and Zonta Hatea Whangārei clubs and the Mangakahia Lions Club, is planned for July 27 and 28 this year, but the lack of a suitable space ahead of the sale is causing consternation.

Judy Oliver, book fair coordinator for Zonta Hatea Whangārei, said the event had a venue for the sale booked - at last year’s venue the Badminton Centre in Porowini Ave.

But the problem is that they do not have a suitable venue to receive the donated goods and then sort them into the various categories ready for the big sale.

‘’We need a pretty large space- about the size of a quarter of a rugby field - for six to eight weeks ahead of the sale to receive and sort everything,’’ Oliver said.

‘’We need somewhere that’s preferably within the city limits so people don’t have to travel too far, and it would mean there is plenty of parking close by. That’s where we sort the books out into the various categories, box them up ready for the sale, then transport them from there to the sale venue.’’

She said while they had a sale venue booked, if they could find a suitable place to sort the books and then sell them from the same place, that would really help.

‘’There are a lot of books (up to 20,000 are on offer most years) and it’s heavy work transporting them from the sorting venue to the sale venue. And while we have the members of the Mangakahia Lions Club who really help a lot, it would be great if we didn’t have to transport them from one place to the other.

Oliver said over the 30-plus years the popular book fair had been running - the clubs’ major fundraiser for the year - it had poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into helping women and girls progress.

The book fair funds a number of initiatives the Zonta clubs provide, including Plunket, the School for Teen Parents and other students through scholarships, Helping Hands, Grandparents Raising Grandchildren and many other groups and individuals in the community.

‘’It’s all about helping women and girls to further themselves and people can help that by donating books or coming along to the sale and buying some. It all helps.

’’The success of the book fair comes despite some predicting for more than a decade that the art of reading, and books themselves, are dying.”

Each year the book fair attracts hordes of book lovers from across the region with its wide collection that includes people’s favourites in paperback fiction, non-fiction, the arts and many more. Anybody who may have a suitable space for the book fair donations to be received and sorted can ring Judy Oliver on 021 438 831.

■ Zonta is making a difference for women and girls across the globe through international projects and educational awards funded by the Zonta Foundation for Women and through the thousands of service and advocacy initiatives undertaken by Zonta clubs and members in the communities in which they live and work.

It is passionate about providing life-changing opportunities to empower women and girls and improve their health, provide better economic opportunities and prevent gender-based violence and to achieving gender equality in education and support scholarships, fellowships and awards for women and girls.

There are more than 1100 Zonta clubs in 63 countries carrying out our Zonta mission and working to improve the lives of women and girls in their local communities.

Mike Dinsdale is the editor of the Northland Age who also covers general news for the Advocate. He has worked in Northland for almost 34 years and loves the region.